MAVEN is scheduled to launch in approximately 1 hour. If you are in Florida or South Georgia today you may be able to catch a glimpse of the liftoff. There are some thick clouds over Cape Canaveral Air Force base but the forecast is 60% favorable for launch during a two hour window. .

Great news, everyone! Astronomers world wide have confirmed that in the last day or so, ISON has increased in brightness to the point where it is visible to the naked eye. You still have to look closely, as it is still on the border of visibility. Astronomers expect the comet to brighten as it continues to approach the Sun, but no one can know for sure. Through telescopes the green color of the comet is visible.

So why is the comet green? It isn’t uncommon for comets to glow green. This is due to the presence of certain chemicals inside the comet that are released as the nucleus sublimates away into space. Most often these chemicals are cyanogen (CN) and diatomic carbon (C2). Both of these chemicals emit greenish-blue light when in a vacuum (like outer space) and exposed to large amounts of energy (which they are getting from the Sun).

Today I came across this awesome interactive website that allows you to track ISON (as well as other Solar System objects) through the sky from different points of view. I’ll be using it to see where ISON will be over the next view weeks, it also gives you key dates and info. Click the picture below to visit the site:

Unfortunately for us here in Baton Rouge, the next few days have a lot of clouds in the forecast! There will still be time to view the comet early next week once the sky clears… Between now and November 28 the comet is approaching the Sun. From Earth it will be getting closer and closer to the horizon in the early morning sky. If you can, try and view it before Thanksgiving. All you have to do is:

1. Wake up very early, around 5:00 AM!

2. Find a place with a clear view of the eastern horizon.

3. Find the constellation Virgo (outlined in the image above), it will be nearly due east.

4. Look for a faint fuzzy object

5. If you’re feeling up to it, bring the camera out and snap a picture. Click here for a past article about astrophotography tips, it is for a meteor shower, but similar rules apply.

6. While you’re out, don’t miss Saturn, Mercury, and Mars.

Astronomers are unsure of ISON’s fate after it’s close approach to the Sun (which will occur on Thanksgiving Day), it is possible that the Sun’s gravity will cause ISON’s nucleus to break apart. If ISON survives its close encounter with the Sun, it will be visible once again in the morning sky around December 6th. Cross your fingers for ISON’s safe passage around the Sun, and happy viewing!

“On July 19, 2013, in an event celebrated the world over, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn’s shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings — and, in the background, our home planet, Earth.”(NASA)

Get ready everyone! Comet ISON is approaching the Sun, and is expected to be visible in the pre-dawn sky as early as this weekend. Check back with us for all things Comet ISON: comet updates, photography tips, and more. Don’t forget to come visit LASM to view “Vagabonds of the Solar System: Comets Past and Present” exhibition opens November 19th!

NASA is back up and running, and we’ve got some pictures back from Juno! The spacecraft bound for Jupiter, made a close flyby around Earth two weeks ago to get the gravitational assist it needed to reach the outer solar system. While passing Earth, Juno snapped a picture of our home planet. It also tested some instruments to make sure they were ready to go upon arrival at Jupiter.

The Juno spacecraft is using Earth for a gravity assist this Wednesday, October 9th! In case you aren’t familiar with Juno, it is a NASA spacecraft built to study Jupiter. I feel a special connection with Juno, because I watched it launch from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas V rocket on August 5, 2011.*(For more on that see the end of the article).

Juno is scheduled to reach Jupiter in 2016. Fun fact: Juno is the first spacecraft sent to the outer Solar System that uses solar power as its primary energy source. Juno has three huge solar panels, each nearly the size of a tractor trailer. They folded up neatly while inside the Atlas V for launch, then opened outward once in space. These panels will face the Sun, collecting energy for the duration of the voyage. Juno weighs about 8,000 pounds and is named for the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter (known as Zeus in Greek Mythology).

To get to Jupiter, Juno will perform a gravity assist using Earth. Essentially, it will use Earth’s gravity to slingshot itself out into space. The gravity assist will give Juno an extra boost of speed then it will coast the rest of the way to Jupiter. Juno is a very large spacecraft, and it will most likely be possible to view it as it makes its flyby. Unfortunately for viewers in the United States, Juno will not be visible. Observers in parts of Africa and Asia will be on the lookout. Don’t worry, you can tune in on Slooh.com for a live news feed of Juno‘s flyby. Click here for an observational chart of how to spot Juno around the world.

So what is Juno going to do once it gets to Jupiter? Juno will orbit Jupiter thirty-three times between July of 2016 and October of 2017. It will travel in highly elongated orbits that will be slightly shifted so that after all thirty-three passes, Juno will have passed over the entire surface of Jupiter. The purpose of this elongated orbit is that it allows the craft to skim very close to Jupiter, but then takes it away again, therefore minimizing its exposure to the strong radiation coming from Jupiter. Juno will map Jupiter’s gravitational and magnetic fields, helping us better understand the structure of the planet. It will study Jupiter’s aurorae at its poles. Juno will also measure its chemical composition more closely, including its water content. All of this information about our Solar System’s oldest planet will help scientists gain a better understanding of how Jupiter formed, which will in turn better our understanding of the formation of our entire Solar System.

Will Juno stay out there forever? Juno has a very specifically timed mission, and once it completes its work, Juno will crash into Jupiter’s atmosphere. At the end of its mission, Jupiter’s radiation will have destroyed most of the spacecraft’s instruments despite its thick shielding. The main reason for the crash down is to prevent Juno from landing accidentally on one of Jupiter’s moons. An accidental landing of an Earth spacecraft could contaminate these environments, which would complicate future study.

One last fun fact: Lego figures of Galileo as well as the Roman gods Jupiter and Juno are aboard the spacecraft.

*Below is the full dome footage that I captured of the Juno launch. We were as close as civilians could get (we were bussed in). The actual blastoff happens around two minutes in. If you watch the whole thing you can hear mission control doing preflight checks and the countdown. Also, there was a dad with his two kids who was VERY excited about the whole affair, and provides some humorous commentary throughout the video. We were far enough away that we experienced the launch in stages. First we saw the light of ignition, then a few seconds later we heard the rumble of the engines, then a few seconds later we felt the heat blast. Yes, in 95 degree Florida heat from over a mile away we still felt the heat blast from the rocket. It was truly an awesome experience.

An exception from the federal government shutdown has been granted to NASA’s MAVEN mission “in order to protect U.S. property”. The property or properties we are talking about are on the planet Mars; the rovers Curiosity and Opportunity. If MAVEN’s launch window, which is only from November 18th through December 19th or 20th, is missed the next opportunity won’t come along until 2016. This delay would cause major problems since MAVEN’s communication equipment will take over the jobs that Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey have been doing and will allow us to continue to communicate with both rovers. Both MRO and Odyssey have passed their planned lifetimes. Preparation for the launch of NASA’s MAVEN mission has resumed and will continue on an emergency basis.
Besides being equipped to communicate, MAVEN will also probe the Martin upper atmosphere for clues to how the atmosphere has thinned and where its water has gone. MAVEN stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission.

Since its one year anniversary on August 6th., Curiosity has traveled 1,079.52m (3,541′) or about the length of 12 football fields. That’s an average of 22m per day which is short of NASA’s goal of at least 110m per day. But during this period, Curiosity did have its longest drive of the mission when on 9/5 it advanced 138.62m. On that day the drive was extended well beyond what the Curiosity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena could see by enabling the rover’s on-board hazard avoidance system or Autonav.